Bird of Hermes
by Makesushi
Summary: The Bird of Hermes is my name,eating my wings and make me tame. "As my father told me, many years ago, if you two ever find yourself in grave danger make your way to the lowest levels of the manor, in the furthest part of the dungeon. There you will find your salvation. Do you understand?" "Yes mother."


I was four and my brother was two when our real parents were killed. We were too young to understand what happened, but a woman came to us that night, and said that we were going to have to stay with her. She was our second cousin once removed, but after a year or two, she told us that she was our new mother. I resented her for it, for a long time actually, but my younger brother, Jasper took to her immediately. It's kind of funny, now that I think about it. Sir Integra took care of us, and showed us affection in her own way, but I always thought she was cruel.

I was five the first time she thrust a gun into my hand. "Learn to shoot it, you have a week." She left me in the care of her most trusted servant, Seras, and went off to do whatever it was that she did during the day. Reason enough to say, I was nowhere near as skilled as she wanted me to be by the time the week was up, but she was satisfied that I had tried. She pat me on the head and gave me her little smile. "Good enough." That was the first time I realized I didn't hate her, as much as I wanted to.

For my sixth birthday, along with the adoption papers, Integra gave me a new servant, Michel. He belonged to my brother and I both. An accomplished fighter of around twenty-six years old. He made my brother and I meals, gave us our school lessons, and trained us. He was brutal and without mercy, but I knew I could place both of our lives in his hands without worry.

At seven my mother called us into her office. She seemed slightly distressed. She gestured for us to sit down so she could talk to us. "I'm not sure if you know this or not, what our organization does, I mean." She drummed her fingers on the desk, looking at us both for an answer. " _I've_ never told you, but I haven't prohibited anyone from letting it slip."

"No." I answered for the both of us.

"We are...different from other military branches." She reached for one of her cigars, but seemed to think better of it. "That is to say, we aren't _officially_ part of her majesty's army."

"What are you then?" My brother asked, chewing on his nail.

" _We_ operate in the shadows. We fight the shadows. Demons, ghouls, vampires. We deal in things normal people couldn't possibly understand."

"Scary." Loki said, moving closer to my side.

I knew she wasn't lying to us. She had no reason to do so. "One of them...they killed our parents, didn't they?" I asked, looping and arm around my brother."

"Yes, Allen, a monster killed your parents." She told me, without missing a beat. "A vampire's servant, a ghoul. Seras came to your home to save them, but by that time it was already too late, and you two were the only ones left alive."

"Who else did they kill...besides mother and father?"

"Your servants, your cousins, your aunt and uncle, your sister." She sighed and walked around the desk, to place a hand on my shoulder. "What is your name Allen?"

"Allen Jamison Alexander Hellsing."

"And you, Jasper? What is your name?"

He puffed up his chest. "Jasper Lance Hellsing."

"What is it that the Hellsing's do?" She prompted both of us.

"Destory the darkness." I said, my voice hallow.

"And drive out evil!"

She rubbed the tops of our heads, and smiled approvingly. She turned to me, and pulled me close, for one of those rare moments of affection. "Allen, you will be head of this family legacy when I die. Please, grow up strong, and don't resent me because of how hard I push you." Then she was gone, and standing in front of her window facing the northern garden.

"As my father told me, many years ago, if you two ever find yourself in grave danger make your way to the lowest levels of the manor, in the furthest part of the dungeon. There you will find your salvation. Do you understand?"

"Yes mother."

She looked at me for a moment before smiling ever so slightly, and dismissing us.

* * *

She died when I was ten, just three years after I really started to think of her as my mother. The mansion, was being flooded with ghouls, being led by a woman with flowing red hair. Hair the color of blood. Seras took the three of us, and went with Michel to fight off the opposing forces. Mother took me by the hand and grabbed Jasper, so she was holding him. "It's going to be okay." She told my sobbing brother, as another explosion shook our home. Our mother was older. She was forty-nine and the years had done to her as they had done to everyone else. But she was still strong. She was the strongest woman I had ever met. She sat in a chair, furthest away from the door, and placed my brother on her lap. I sat by the chair, and pulled my legs up to my chest. She ran her fingers through my hair, and tapped her foot on the ground.

"Remember what I told you?" She asked me, her voice strained. "About the basement?"

"Yes. We'll find our salvation down there." I pulled my brother away from her, and made him stand on the table with me. "We'll find what you have hidden there, and save you as well, mother."

"Wait, no, we can't leave her!" My brother screamed as I pushed him up the air vents.

"We need to find the angel in the cellar." I told him. "He'll save her." I promised him, hugging him tightly. So we crawled, and crawled, and crawled. We ignored the explosions, the cries of terror. We dropped from the roof, onto the floor of the cellar. "The last door, the last door, the last door." I kept repeating to myself, pulling my eight year old brother with me. He tripped a few times over his own feet, but we couldn't stop, or we'd be caught. I could hear those awful creatures moaning and groaning as they caught a whiff of us. My brother screamed as they chased us down the hall.

I picked up the pace considerably when the door was in sight. It opened easily, but I had to close it quickly when a ghoul almost grabbed me by my shirt. I slammed the door on its arm, and the whole thing came off, wriggling around of the ground. "Help me push this in front of the door!" I yelled to my brother, pointing to a large bookcase. He nodded, and together, we used every ounce of our strength. There were ghouls right outside the door, trying to burst inside.

"B-brother, where's the angel?" Jasper asked me, pulling close to my side, grabbing onto my coat sleeve.

I looked around the room. It was empty, except for the bookcase, and a coffin in the center of the room. Black, with red embellishments on the sides, leading up to the center. "Oh...I get it." I said, walking towards it. "It's not an angel. It's the devil." I keeled near the coffin and opened the latches. The lid opened on its own, causing me to flinch back, but nothing crawled out at me, so I moved closer. I looked in, and turned away from the dried out man laying there.

"Jasper, get me something sharp." He brought a broken fragment of glass. I thanked him, before raising it up and stabbing it deep into my hand. I cried out in pain, as my blood dripped into the open mouth of the corps. He didn't move. "Could it be..." I looked down at him, then up at my brother. "There's nothing here..." I stood up and walked to him. I pulled him close to my body. The ghouls were making better work of busting down the door.

I held him close to my chest while he screamed when they managed to destroy our defenses. "It's okay...I'm right here. We'll go meet the rest of our family in heaven, right now." There were tears in my eyes, but I didn't let them slip out, for his sake. "I'm sure they've missed us." I only prayed that they'd give us a swift death, however unlikely that was.

The monsters didn't attack us. They parted, like the red sea, as their master stepped forward, dragging our mother with her, by the hair. Jasper gasped, and pressed closer to me. I could tell that she was badly beaten, with broken bones, and blood pouring out of her nose and mouth. But she was alive, and that was the most comforting sight in the world.

"Mother...there was nothing...just a corpse." I said, looking at her with wide eyes. "There is no salvation."

"Correct child." The woman with red hair said, forcing my mother to stand, and shoved her forward. "Say your last words to your children, Sir Integra."

She looked at us, with a smile, that did not hold the pain that I would have expected from a woman whose whole family was about to be murdered. No, instead, she looked triumphant. "Allen Jamison Alexander Hellsing, I am now proud to bestow upon you the title of 'Sir Allen Jamison Alexander Hellsing' Leader of the Hellsing organization." Tears were running freely down my cheeks by that point.

She let out a sudden scream of pain as the woman in red, shoved her hand through our mother's chest. "What good will that do?" The woman asked, letting our mother fall to the ground. "You're all going to die anyways."

My brother and I watched in horror as our mother clawed her way to a position where she could raise her head, and one of her arms. "Alucard!" She screamed. "I know not if you can hear me, but if you can, this is my last order to you as your master!" She was reaching for the coffin. " _Protect my children!_ "

The evil woman slammed her foot down into our mother's head, but not hard enough to do any real damage. "You talk way to much, Sir Integra." She said. She raised her hand, and with a wave of her wrist, twenty ghouls rushed at my brother and I, with awful, disgusting looks of their faces.

I close my eyes and dropped to my knees, shielding my brother with my own body. He was screaming, I was screaming, but eventually we both realized that nothing had happened. I opened my eyes, and there was blood...everywhere. On the walls, on my face, all over the floor. And a man was standing there. Long black hair, a thin frame with slender arms and twisted fingers, crooked legs that seemed difficult to stand on. There was thick blood dripping from his fingers onto the floor. He turned to face us, and I had the misfortune to look directly in his eyes, while his mouth stretched into a wide and wicked smile. He didn't spare me much time before he turned away and calmly made his way to our mother's side.

He turned her over, so she was face up, and brushed some of her golden hair out of her eyes. He leaned over her, and the two of them whispered together. What was said, I never did learn, because _he_ never saw fit to tell me. As she drew her last breath, he stood once more, and slowly he walked towards us. I tried to back us away, but we could only go so far, until our backs hit the wall. He leaned down, and I shut my eyes once more. But once again I was surprised that death had not taken me. Opening my eyes, I saw him, kneeling before my brother and I, a hand over his chest. He opened his red eyes, and smiled at me, however this time it was not as menacing as before.

"Are you the angel?!" Jasper asked, trying to get a closer look at the creature.

"If that is what you wish, young master."

"What is your name?" I asked him, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"Your mother called me...Alucard."


End file.
